19/12/2023 - Jérémie Degruson delivers smart and daring family entertainment urging viewers to be themselves, no matter what

Brussels-based studios nWave and their now-retired founder Ben Stassen made a name for themselves in the late 2000s with 3D animated films, at a time when cinemas had only just become equipped with the technology in order to show Avatar. Strengthened by their technical expertise in an emerging market, nWave took advantage of this to develop themselves in another area, this time centred on storytelling, becoming one of the main European production studios to make animated feature films for all audiences. Exported around the world, their films clearly aim to compete with Disney or Pixar, and nWave sometimes hires English-speaking screenwriters to do so. Their latest, The Inseparables [+see also:
trailer
interview: Jérémie Degruson and Matthi…
film profile], directed by Jérémie Degruson and released in France this week by KMBO and in Belgium tomorrow by Belga Films, brings us straight to the heart of the English-speaking world as within the first few minutes, we find ourselves in Central Park, behind the scenes of a puppet show. 

There we find Don, an anti-hero tired of being the straight man for others. Just once, he’d like to play a hero full of panache. However within the company, the clothes quickly make the man, and Don understands that he will need to escape if he wants to play the brave knight he knows he can be. During his journey through the park, a very hostile environment for a tiny puppet, Don crosses paths with DJ Doggy Dog, a plush toy abandoned by its owners. The little dog is tired of being confined to the single rap lyric that his speaker occasionally spouts out, and he has only one dream: to find a family. Together with Dee, who’s had her share playing damsels in distress, the two friends thus throw themselves into a wild adventure featuring ducklings and dragons, mini-golf and windmills.

What happens backstage, when the actors take off their costumes? Do they stay in character? Can we escape from the roles that are assigned to us? This reflection on identity here takes the form of three amusing toys, who without knowing it take on three mythical roles: Don Quixote, Sancho Panza, and Dulcinea, appropriating them and modernising them. Their adventure raises moving and current questions, all the while touching on the power of stories and the imagination. 

In the directing department, Jérémie Degruson and the nWave animators have a lot of fun, with different layers of the narrative represented by contrasting, singular animation techniques: there are the plays that open and close the film, the journey in Central Park, and Don’s flights of fancy, bringing together 2D and 3D, with certain shots featuring different techniques at once. The energetic score, meanwhile, is by the Belgian band Puggy, who deliver their own version of the Pixies’ Where is My Mind among other things. The references for adults are abundant (Cervantes, musicals, hip hop culture, and Fight Club via the Pixies) while the protagonists’ characterisation is perfectly convincing. In short, this is smart and effective family entertainment.

The Inseparables was produced by nWave, in co-production with France’s Octopolis and Spain’s A Contracorriente Films.

(Translated from French)